In the broader sense, a production plant is intended to be understood as meaning a structure which consists of at least two production devices. This can be used to mean, for example, a production cell which contains a plurality of machines. However, as a production plant, an entire factory hall or even an entire factory, for example, can also be represented as a model. In the broader sense, production devices should be understood as meaning all spatial units which are required for production. In the narrower sense, these include machines for machining products, but likewise devices for transporting the products between the different machines as well as other spatial devices which are required in the production plant. Other spatial devices may be understood as meaning, for example, offices for production managers, paths for employees, storage areas for material etc.
It is generally known practice per se to represent production plants, for example factory halls, as a model. Such models can support the powers of imagination of those involved in planning, in particular in the planning phase.
Computer-aided planning tools for factory planning, as are offered, for example, by the company Fujitsu under the trade name GLOVIA in a 2008 company brochure, are suitable as an alternative. These computer-aided planning tools require virtual three-dimensional models of the production devices and of the spatial conditions of the production plant to be input. The models produced in this manner can then be compiled in a virtual environment and a production sequence can be simulated in order to be able to draw conclusions on the functionality of the planned production plant.
Both real model layouts and computer-aided simulations of production plants can be used to carry out optimization processes which allow the production sequences as well as the space requirement and further aspects to be optimized before the production plant is constructed. In this case, real model layouts have the advantage that there is an intuitive interface for the factory planner. On the other hand, computer-aided planning programs have the advantage that simulation of the production sequence is easier, and further data can also be processed in addition to spatial data during modeling.
This is because, in order to be able to construct a simulation of the production plant in the planning program described above, the boundary conditions for the respective application to be planned must be known. These include the spatial conditions of the production plant, which may already be present (optimization task) or has yet to be constructed (planning task), and the properties of the production devices used. The data may already be present in databases, with the result that linking to the planning program can be carried out in a comparatively simple manner. However, data which are not yet available must be input to the planning program, thus resulting in effort for the factory planner.
In order to ease the effort involved in inputting the data to the planning system, US 2002/0107674 A1 proposes that the models of the production devices may be provided, for example, with two-dimensional markers which are suitable for identifying the individual models. An optical recognition system, for example, can use these markers to recognize the identity of the individual production devices. It is also possible to detect the orientation of said devices. The model itself can also be used as a marker using a relatively large amount of computational effort, in which case said marker must be recognized using suitable optical recognition methods.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,317 describes a program for planning the layout of factories, for example, in which, in addition to the actual area requirement of the production devices, a relatively large, relevant area requirement can also be taken into account. This relevant area requirement is automatically identified by the program and is taken into account when generating a proposal for the layout. After the proposal which takes into account the relevant area requirement of the production devices has been developed, the proposal is output on a suitable output device. The area requirement of the individual production devices is displayed there, in which case production devices whose relevant area requirement is relatively large are at a correspondingly relatively long distance from adjacent production devices. The manner in which the consideration of a relevant area requirement of individual production devices is included in detail in the proposed planning result cannot be gathered from the output.